{Photography} ~ Evaluations

Landscape

What has influenced you?

As I was entering the boundaries, I was having trouble finding my first landscape shot. As I took a look at my mood board, I've been gathering some thoughts about the fonts. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to take a photo of the building with the sky. I have taken the liberty of turning the camera on 'Auto mode'. I wasn't sure if there was a mode for landscape photos though. Got the camera lens to focus, zoomed in a bit, and it came out great as a result. All the inspiration I have gathered, it was really worth it in the end.

Content

For the photo's main subject, I chose the building to make it obvious to the audience. If you can see in the picture I have taken, the sky suddenly turns from a dark blue gradient to a light blue in the middle to drag the audience's eyes. That is why I chose landscape, so you can bring the audience's attention to the beauties of wonder.

Composition/Framing:

The sky looking a bit misty, gives attention to the audience, as a dramatic affect to the picture due to it's gradient.

Lines Of Perspective:

I once had a look at some photography videos about the composition of the shots. styles/backgrounds, to see what I can pick up from them, and having to take these photos reminded me of that, which is giving me more advice in taking great quality and dramatic photos. Talking about the other side of the area, which gives it by scaling the subject in the foreground against the background elements of the shot. In addition, it could imply what does the pathway lead to? Where am I going to end up? It really drags me into that position.

Colour:

The photographs I have taken, are in colour. The colour brings the mood to photographs, by creating emotion to the picture. The sky transforming from a light blue, to a dark misty colour to represent it's time lapse. Having too much light will leave you irritated and strain in your eyes.

Pattern/Texture:

When I took the pictures, I remembered that texture of the pathways/buildings can actually bring life and vibrancy to it/our world, which can also lead me into getting loads of inspiration.

Strengths/Weaknesses

For the landscape, I could have done more photo angles for this photo. I should have set the mode to landscape to create better shots.

Portrait

What has influenced you?

I once had a look at some photography videos about the composition of the shots/styles/backgrounds, to see what I can pick up from them, and having to take these photos reminded me of that, which is giving me more advice in taking great quality and dramatic photos.

Content

The following photos are basically about looking directly at the camera in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer, and to make the viewer interested in them, which is why I made the photos more dark and dramatic.

Composition/Framing:

The ideas I had in mind, is trying to position the frame into getting a perfect shot. So for the photos I have already taken, they all have a special connection. We don't see their background, we only show what they are trying to tell us that there's nothing behind them. As for the genre I have chosen, (black and white photo/red shadow picture) is more of a moody style, because I want the viewer to understand and have a better idea of what I'm trying to explain to them, through the picture, instead of telling them personally. How am I feeling and what is my purpose.

Colour:

These photographs I have taken, show dramatic effects by its filter. For example, if you look at the first photo in black and white, it shows the person's true personality through the eyes and what they tell us how they are feeling in the moment.

Pattern/Texture:

The pattern and texture of these 3 photographs, show how they have included a brightness, contrast scale to show what the world is like around them. Also including the shades of colours to make it look more realistic.

Strengths/Weaknesses

I could have done more viewpoints like, extreme close ups and different expressions.

Light box

What has influenced you?

My influences was from famous photographers who did commercial photography, macro and photographer who used their inspiration throughout their successes, since lighting determines not only brightness and darkness, but also tone, mood and the atmosphere around it.

Content

The main subject is about the Nutella boxes and the coca cola cans, because it shows the audience the main element of the photograph as you look through the camera.

Composition/Framing:

From my perspective in looking at the photographs I have took, when I took the shot for the Nutella boxes, it's angle was more of a low angle mixed with a high angle. I took many shots of these so I can decide which one was more in position in throughout the frame. As for the coca cola cans, it's been positioned as a low angle, and it's shadow reflecting on the lightbox really gives it the dramatic effect.

Colour:

Colour really suits the mood with the lightbox and it's main subject, because I want the audience to know what the product looks like, and really creates that spark in the audience's eyes once they take a look at the product right in front of them.

Pattern/Texture:

Photographing a building to bring out the texture of flaking paint can make the building seem old and unloved, and to make the main subject's more realistic.

Strengths/Weaknesses

I could've set it to macro mode, so you can see more of the high qualities of the photograph. Also, I have to make sure the photos are fully in the frame and ensure that I take my photographs carefully.

Macro

What has influenced you?

What has influenced me taking these shots, was the current ideas I had on my mood board and the famous photography research I had gathered. From my mood board, it really gave me a lot of ideas to share why I chose to do this genre. Nature pictures the viewer standing in a position where they can find resources more relaxing and how it's so pleasing to their likings.

Content

The first photo 's main subject, is the pathway leading to a specific boundary. As the photo was taken, it shows the audience where the path is leading and what it's telling us to go, as you can see. The pathway shadows can lead to anywhere, which makes the photo more mysterious than it already is.

Composition/Framing:

The branches in the front of the lens, tells us where we are standing, which made it look more clear and not blurry. It drags the audience's eyes as a dramatic affect to the picture and adding a focal point through framing shows a viewer exactly where to look or what is happening in the distance.

Colour:

Using colour in nature correctly helps draw attention to the subject, and therefore creates a powerful visual effect that is pleasing to the eye and inspires the audience to picture themselves enjoying the beautiful colours of wonderment.

Pattern/Texture:

The pattern and texture usually refers to the overall size of the leaves and grass. So these types of photos really have a connection with each other. For example, the grass has a narrow, fine textured feeling to its roots. Leaves are considered coarse textured. Texture can also refer to the smoothness or roughness on the surface each leaf.

Strengths/Weaknesses

I could have done more preparation for this, such as thinking about the different angles there are such as: extreme close ups, high angles, low angles, side angles to make my shots more effective to the audience, and to make it more adventurous at the same time.

History Of Photography

Photo: Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey

William Henry Fox Talbot - Back in 1800, he key figure in the history of photography, which was around the 19th century, he made an early photographic method and published the main element of photography as a positive outcome.

1834 - William Talbot developed a method which included a negative image on sensitized paper, The negative could then be used to create multiple positive photographs by contact printing.

1840 - Talbot made a sudden breakthrough when he found out that invisible, or ‘latent’, images were formed on sensitized paper even after relatively short times. These images could be made visible, or processed, if used with chemicals. By inventing the methods needed to make latent images visible and ‘fix’ them to stop them from fading, Talbot made the future development of photography in the most possible way.

Photo: Cyanotype, from Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, Anna Atkins, 1851.

1799–1871 Anna Atkins was one of the first female photographers. She is known for having produced the first photographic illustrated book in Britain, named British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.The completed work contained over about 400 photographs of British algae.

A person named Sir John Herschel had invented the cyanotype process in 1842, and Atkins used it to make her images, which you can call it inspiration.

Cyanotypes, known as blueprints, meaning plans, and mostly used by the engineering industry, were also made using chemically photosensitive paper.which was relatively cheap and easy to produce, cyanotypes had increased a lot of popularity around the 19th century amateur photographic circles.

Atkins made her images by laying specimens directly onto the sensitised paper and exposing them to the sunlight. Once they have been exposed, the prints needed only washing and drying, as there were no further chemicals required in the production of the images.

Atkins went on to produce several more cyanotype albums, featuring many striking and astonishing images, mainly of ferns and plants. It is now kept in the National Science and Media Museum collection, along with the rest of the albums.

Lewis Carroll 1832–1898, was a mathematics lecturer at Oxford University, a Deacon at Christ Church Cathedral and an accomplished photographer. He has practised photography about over 25 years and photographed hundreds of sitters in his Oxford studio.

The image above is Carroll’s great friend and photography teacher Reginald Southey with human and monkey skeletons and skulls.

Carroll was a great photographer whose skills were respected among his boundary and beyond point. His creativity was particularly phenomenal in his composition and camera angles. Along with his technical skills too, it came to a conclusion in the production of many striking photographs, particularly during the 1860s.

Carroll’s preferred photographic genre was portrait, and he is noted for his accurate poses. His favourite subjects were children, in particular girls, whom he photographed regularly, sometimes in costume and sometimes naked, which actually scared the public completely. Many questions and concerns have been raised regarding these photographs.

Julia Margaret Cameron 1815–1879 was one of the most inspiring and creative photographers around the 19th century. She is known for her portraits made using atmospheric lighting, long exposure times and soft focus techniques.

Cameron favoured literary, historical and religious themes for her inspiration. Her negatives were made on large glass plates. She often aimed to portray innocence, piety and wisdom through her photographs, or to depict figures and scenes from religion or literature.

Cameron’s portraits were usually featuring her household staff, friends and family members, although she also made many distinctive portraits of figures in the arts and sciences including Sir John Herschel, Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Cameron took up photography at the age of 48, having been given a camera by her daughter as a present.

For the next eleven years, photography dominated her life. She used it as creativity and a money making tool. She was a shrewd business woman who worked hard to publish her work, which influenced loads of people in her time.

Today, her images are recognised as having outstanding artistic purpose and are credited with having had a huge impact on the development of modern photography today.

Francis Frith

In 1822-1898, Francis Frith was a victorian photographer, who had a strong, photography business. He produces photographic prints of the wonders of Britain and other tourist boundaries, such as landmarks.

This really interested the public massively. His growth in his photos in tourism, brought people into seeing new things and experience more of the world in this growth in tourism, and prompted a powerful new desire for knowledge.

This photograph Francis took, shows one of the Victorian Bradford’s most significant buildings, the Wool Exchange. It was significant, not only for its impressive Gothic architecture but also for the contribution it made to maintaining the city, in its role as the centre of the wool community.

Fay Godwin 1931 to 2005 is regarded as one of Britain’s finest landscape photographers in the world. She is known for her black and white photographs, which reflect the diverse and changing nature.

She had a special skill to portray the essential characteristics of landscapes such as, sea and sky. Her work often draws attention to the effects of the different generations have had in the natural environment, which she began to portray, which made her talent progress.

Her work was published in several books, the most influential of which was Land - 1985. Landscape featured photographs taken over the ten year period, many of which were taken.

She had been awarded in 1978.

In 1987 Godwin was awarded the Bradford Fellowship. During the term of her fellowship, Godwin’s experiments with colour photography reached it's highest development in the exhibition.

This photograph illustrates her masterful use of light and shade and striking compositional ability.

This along with a full range of mid tones, creates an interesting scene and emphasises Yorkshire landscapes.

A British photographer named Martin Parr in 1952, is one of the most significant artists throughout the modern history of photography.

His body of work has brought him fame and made a deeper understanding on those who have followed in his steps. Parr is famous for his humorous style and his interest in mass tourism landmarks and globalisation.

His work is frequently aware as being critical of England and the English and as such is often received with attraction and feeling, regardless of its impact on the medium and high quality.

A member of Magnum Photos, Parr works with brash colour to portray a world apparently full of vulgarity and wastefulness.

His first large scale project was a series of photographs of the rundown seaside resort of New Brighton on the Wirral, which was published as a book in 1986 and grew widely.

The Last Resort became notorious for its shocking, garishly colourful portrayal throughout modern society.

This photograph, drawn from the series, shows two small children with ice creams dribbling down their hands, faces and clothes. Their messy appearance implies careless and neglectful parenting, further emphasised by the way they’re positioned alone on the kerb.

His photographs bring audience their thoughts and their feelings about how children should be treated.

Simon Norfolk 1963, is also known for his large scale colour photographs of the aftermath of wars, how it all began, is this how it ends. Ruined landscapes, buildings and local communities are typical themes, as Norfolk surveys the feelings and thoughts about how it would have felt during those tragedies.

This photograph is taken from one of his most important series, Afghanistan: Chronotopia, and shows a balloon seller standing in front of a former teahouse in Kabul.

The war in Afghanistan has left an unfamiliar landscape in its wake, with many residents living among ruined buildings.

Norfolk produces beautiful and detailed images, often bathed in rich sunlight and sometimes including distant mountain ranges, which emphasise the scale and history of the land. Especially the sky, which brings tension while dark clouds begin to merge and cover the sun rays.

18th and 19th centuries are referenced in Simon Norfolk’s photographs, through the dramatic skies, the colours and the scale of the works. The ruined landscape has been created, perhaps a memorial to what has been destroyed.

The shape of the building is emphasised by the camera’s low viewpoint, and its outline is almost silhouetted against the sky.

The muted colour palette focuses attention on the balloons, which in turn, become peculiar, dramatic and suspicious representations of mainstream popular culture.

Plan for practical lesson

For landscape, I was thinking of maybe going onto the temple ground, by going to different locations of the areas around it, to show that there is more to the area that people may presume. I'm going to be looking through it's background, mood and texture with using long shots, mid shots, different angles like low, high to give it a closer view.

Furthermore, I'm going to maybe attend in the evening where there's going to be all the lights lit up and I want to see how it reflects on the camera. A way to capture it's eyes. How we can view it. Sometimes, it's like a fragment of time in the sensor.

For portrait, I have been thinking of trying to take pictures of my cat and myself. Using different angles by side, high and low, close ups, extreme close ups etc. I am hoping to use the appropriate mode for this. I will be using 'portrait' mode and I'll turn the camera on it's side to give the picture an accurate height and width for a portrait photo.

For macro, I have been getting into thought of taking pictures of leaves and it's texture, rain drops, Christmas lights or a peeled orange. I'll try and get used to the different modes on the camera. For example, if I were to choose Macro first, I would set the camera mode to macro, so I could get the perfect shot just like these macro images I found on the net. Furthermore, I'll be getting into thought whether to get many shots in different angles such as: low angle, high angle, extreme close up, side view. A shot that fills in the frame. I want to be able to view the texture/pattern of the objects I'll be using for this, so I can get a closer view on what objects really look like when we view them closely. How we can feel them/What do we think about them?